This invention relates generally to a powered utility apparatus and, more particularly, to a powered trenching apparatus that can operated from behind the implement.
Powered walk behind or self-propelled tools are known in the art. Examples include brush mowers, lawn mowers, rotary brooms, string trimmers and edging mechanisms. Each such implement is operably driven by a dedicated power unit. Motive power is transferred from the power unit to the drive wheels, while other power drive trains transfers operational power to the work apparatus, such as an edging mechanism. Many of these powered walk behind implements have the work apparatus positioned generally centrally and likely forwardly of the engine to provide a balanced load to the operation of the implement. Some such powered implements, like the edging mechanism for example, position the work apparatus to one side of the implement. Edging mechanisms, however, do not encounter a significant load in the operation thereof as the edging device is shaping the edge of landscape beds, and the like.
A trenching mechanism, such as found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,266,900, issued to Dana Bizzell on Jul. 31, 2001, has been in use for many years to dig a trench below the surface of the ground and, therefore, incurs a substantial load during the operation. Typically, a walk behind trencher is operated with the implement trailing the  operator, rather than the operator trailing the implement, as with a lawn mower or an edging mechanism. Therefore, the term “walk behind trencher” is somewhat of a misnomer. Pulling a conventional “walk behind trencher” can be an arduous task and is quite tiring to the operator. The power unit must be guided in the proper direction so that the trenching mechanism digs the trench in the desired location, while providing some motive power to the forward movement of the implement.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,125,943, issued to Charles Valois on Oct. 3, 2000, is directed to an edging/trenching mechanism that is of the true walk behind configuration. The work apparatus is configured to provide a narrow slit in the ground and, therefore, does not encountered the high operative loads that a conventional trencher, such as in the aforementioned Bizzell patent. In fact, the more significant the trench being formed by the work apparatus, the greater the side draft loads on the implement would be for a trencher of the Valois configuration. The handling of a side mounted trenching apparatus can be particularly burdensome as the rotation of the trenching tool is normally rotating in the opposite direction to the desired direction of travel of the implement, causing the operator to constantly skew the implement to the side to compensate for the operational load imposed by the trenching tool. Using the “pull behind” version of a side mounted trencher alleviates this problem somewhat, but performance and safety problems compromise the effectiveness and tend to exhaust the operator unduly. 
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a true walk behind trenching apparatus having a side mounted trenching tool that can be operated in a manner that will enhance performance and ease the physical burden on the operator.